— When you first fall in love with photography or photo artistry, it’s easy to become utterly absorbed in it.  But as with all things, that feeling can eventually fade.  And when it does, it’s easy to slip into a rut, or worse, find yourself taking up your camera (or sitting down to Photoshop) less and less regularly.

Maybe this is you.  (Or maybe it’s the future you if we don’t do something now to intervene.)

I don’t know that there’s a one size fits all solution to this.  But I do feel I have some ideas worth trying if you want to keep the romance with your Muse alive . . .

First — Get Inspired (More Often)!

Not a day should go by that you aren’t spending at least twenty minutes admiring great photography or great artwork.  

Find some photographers that leave you breathless (for me this would include Saul Leiter, Willy Ronis, Vivian Maier, Trent Parke) and every day make time to become fully absorbed in their work.

Find some artists that dazzle you with their talent (for me this would include painters like Vermeer and Rembrandt, and all the amazing digital artists we publish each month in Living the Photo Artistic Life magazine) and every day kick back and linger over their images, noting what you love most, and imagining yourself creating similar work of your own.

You might also find inspiration in the cinematography of great films, or you might find it in music or in walking in nature.  

Wherever your inspiration comes from, tap into that every single day.  And if you can keep a journal to record any ideas you have while inspired, all the better!

Second — Challenge Yourself More

One of the most common reasons you’ll find your inspiration waning is that you’re simply getting bored with doing the same things all the time.  When you’ve stopped challenging yourself, when you’ve stopped learning, when you’ve stopped growing . . . you just don’t get the rush from it all that you once did.

Fortunately, there’s a simple solution here.  Make a list of all the training you want to get to (or revisit) and all the skills you wish to acquire.  And then as you spend time each day learning something new, create a second list of the images or projects you could dive into that would make you stretch yourself as an artist.

Projects are especially powerful here.  Creating a random image just for the fun of it can be great, but it’s never going to carry the creative intensity of a well thought out project requiring a weekend (or a full week) to pull off.  Immersing yourself in cool projects — that’s how you spark enthusiasm.  You know this.  So let me ask you: How many projects do you have in motion right now?  How many are you at least plotting out in your journal and thinking about every day?

Make this change in how you conduct your creative life.  Every week you should be looking for new ways to expand your skills.  Every week you should be jotting down a few ideas for how you might challenge yourself more.  

And I am convinced that creative projects are not only the path to mastery but also the path to lifelong fulfillment as an artist.

Third — Start (and End) Each Day With a Clear INTENTION

I’m going to share something I’ve never shared before.  And it’s kinda private.  

In my shower, I keep a small waterproof notepad and pencil.  And on the topmost page I have this written:  “What will I CREATE today?  And how can I make it AWESOME?”

Every morning as I shower I read that.  Every single day.   After my morning routine and before I head to my desk.

For me, more often than not, “What will I CREATE today?” translates in my mind to “How can I INSPIRE someone today?”

But for you, it might translate directly to something you hope to capture with your camera — a photo shoot you want to stage, a place you want to visit at just the right time of the day, a clever technique you want to practice.  Or perhaps it might translate to the next composition you’ve been planning to create for a series you’re crafting to showcase on your new website.

It’s not so important what it is.  What matters is that you have something each day that you’re excited about working on.

(Please read that last paragraph over again.)

This is very different from most increasingly burned out photographers and bored would-be artists.  Many have an inclination toward doing something creative.  Or at least an inclination to maybe sorta do something maybe someday.  Maybe.  Someday.

But an inclination is very different from a clear INTENTION.

The very best artists, photographers, musicians, writers — the very best are driven forward because of the clarity they bring to their intentions each day.

Clarity.

This above all else.

Which is why I’m going to recommend you get yourself some.

Write that word on a piece of paper and tape it to the top of your computer screen so you’ll see it every day.

I want you to do whatever it takes (daily journaling, daily walks, Zoom meetings with other aspiring artists) to get very, very clear about what you intend to do with this beautiful, amazing, extraordinary artistic life you have available to you every single day.

And you needn’t have grand ambitions here.  I’m not talking about that.  For many, it’s more than enough just to have a quiet, happy, perfectly solitary yet delightfully artistic life.

(Personally, I’d take that over a busy, stressful, “working artist” life any day.)

But the way you create a rewarding life — whatever your ambitions — is by getting very clear about what that life would actually look like for you.  What each day would look like.  What you would fill it with.  And what those days would come to mean to you over a lifetime.

So each morning and each night (and each time you take up your camera or sit down at your computer), just take a minute to ask yourself the question:  “What am I going to CREATE?  And how can I make it AWESOME — or just plain FUN?”

Set that as your intention.  Over and over and over.  Every single day.

Then smile.  You know where you’re going now.  

Time to go make it happen.  

~ Sebastian

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PS:  The images featured throughout this post are by AWAKE artist Jim Laskowicz, whose prolific talents never fail to inspire, and who has clearly honed in on his intentions — bringing them to life day after day, as he steadily builds a body of work we will not soon forget.